Terushichi Hirai
5 December 1900 – 11 December 1970 was one of the most prominent Japanese photographers in the first half of the 20th century in Japan. In 1937, he founded Avant-Garde Image Group (Avant-Garde Zoei Shūdan) with Gingo Hanawa (1894–1957), Yoshio Tarui, Kōrō Honjō and Yoshifumi Hattori. The Osaka section of the 2022 Tokyo Photographic Art Museum exhibition Avant-Garde Rising: The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan situated the group within the Kansai avant-garde and included Hirai among its artists.
Terushichi Hirai

Hirai Terushichi · 長野重一・飯沢耕太郎・木下直之編『日本の写真家 15 小石清と前衛写真』岩波書店、1999年7月13日、 ISBN 4-00-008355-4 · Public domain
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- Japan · Empire of Japan
- Occupation
- photographer
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- Japanese
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5 December 1900 – 11 December 1970 was one of the most prominent Japanese photographers in the first half of the 20th century in Japan. In 1937, he founded Avant-Garde Image Group (Avant-Garde Zoei Shūdan) with Gingo Hanawa (1894–1957), Yoshio Tarui, Kōrō Honjō and Yoshifumi Hattori. The Osaka section of the 2022 Tokyo Photographic Art Museum exhibition Avant-Garde Rising: The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan situated the group within the Kansai avant-garde and included Hirai among its artists.
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Biography
Biography
In 1956, Hirai also participated in the newly founded Japan Subjective Photography League and in the First International Subjective Photography Exhibition, which brought together prewar avant-garde figures such as Kansuke Yamamoto and Kōrō Honjō alongside emerging postwar photographers including Kiyoji Ōtsuji, Ikkō Narahara, and Yasuhiro Ishimoto. He was good at imaginative, illusionary and surrealistic photography, using photomontages and color painting on prints. His works such as "Fantasies of the Moon" (1938), "Mode" (1938, Mōdo) and "Life" (1938, Seimei) are known among other important works for the history of Japanese photography before World War II.

「月の夢想」
Hirai Terushichi · 長野重一・飯沢耕太郎・木下直之編『日本の写真家 15 小石清と前衛写真』岩波書店、1999年7月13日、 ISBN 4-00-008355-4

「風」
Hirai Terushichi · 長野重一 ・ 飯沢耕太郎 ・ 木下直之 編『日本の写真家 15 小石清と前衛写真』岩波書店、1999年7月13日、 ISBN 4-00-008355-4
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1900
Terushichi Hirai born at Osaka Prefecture.
1970
Terushichi Hirai died at Sakai.
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Osaka Prefecture.
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Sakai.
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reference work
- “Terushichi Hirai”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3951889: Terushichi Hirai
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- 1.Nagoya, Another Capital of Photography: Photo Avant-garde from the 1930s to the Early Post-war. MEM. 9.
- 2.Avant-Garde Rising The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan. 東京都写真美術館 TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHIC ART MUSEUM.
- 3.主観主義写真(主観的写真). artscape.
- 4.Kaneko, Ryūichi. Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto. Getty Publications. 172. 2013. 9781606061329.
- 5.Fujimura, Satomi. Avant-Garde Rising: The Photographic Vanguard in Modern Japan. Kokusho Kankokai. 195. 2022. 9784336073679.
- 6.Stojković, Jelena. Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde. Routledge. 168. 2020. 9781788314053.
- 7.Exhibiting “The End of Modern Photography”: Ten Artists of Contemporary Japanese Photography and Fifteen Photographers Today. SFMOMA.
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